One truism in life is, whatever goes up must come down. And nowhere is this more true than in the entertainment industry, where people become stars, reign for a while and then fade away, however hard they try to remain visible.
In Nollywood, for instance, there was a time the likes of Omotola, Genevieve, Emeka Ike, Ini Edo, Saint Obi, Uche Jombo, Kate Henshaw, Shan George and many others were the rave. Currently, it’s safe to argue that people don’t really care a hoot one way or the other about seeing them in movies like they used to yearn for them in the past.
And just as it is in Nollywood, so also is the music industry. There are many music artistes who have rocked the mic in the past and people are now, maybe, so fed up with them that they don’t really look out for them anymore.
In this category, we can say, are Terry G, Ruggedman, 2Shotz, eLDee, Morachi and many others. Many of these former stars have graciously taken a bow out of their former revered position, while the others are finding it hard to adjust to the life in which they no longer worshipped as sought-after stars.
One extremely successful artiste, who is obviously finding it difficult to adjust to life after stardom is Eedris Abdulkareem. In his heyday, he was undisputedly the most successful rapper in town, with the backing of the most influential record label then, Kennis Music.
But as they say, pride goeth before a fall, and it’s alleged that his success went into his head, which is why he picked a fight with American superstar, 50 Cent, when he came to Nigeria for a show, and it was this fight which is believed to have led to his downfall as corporate bodies got pissed off with him, afraid that he could disrupt their events.
Mind you, he doesn’t really seem to be justified in the fight, as he knew beforehand that 50 Cent would receive superior treatment, and he could have refused to be on the tour with him, instead of disrupting it.
A case in point is King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, who it is said was repeatedly invited by Nigerian Breweries to be a supporting act for their invited foreign stars, but always declined, saying he could attract the sort of crowd they expected to get with the foreign stars.
Most of all, Eedris has recently insulted a lot of artistes- Davido, 2Baba and others- who are currently doing well, making it obvious that he’s just not happy that he’s no longer trending like before.
This now brings us to MI, who was also once a very hot rapper and so successful that he referred to himself as Africa’s number one rapper and nobody disputed his claim.
In recent years, his stock has dropped so much so that he no longer commands the sort of attention he once did. It seems this is not sitting down well with him, however, going by his reactions.
Last year, for instance, he accused Nigerian rappers of not being true to rap as they had started to sing. Though some praised him for the critique, others said he was merely seeking a way to return to relevance himself.
And now, he has mentioned his current top African rappers and without surprising anyone, only one Nigerian rapper was in the five-man list, leading some to say he seemed to be envious of others who had taken over the spot he used to occupy himself.
